NAPLES, Italy, June 3, 1972 -A United States
Navy plane crashed in northern Morocco today, killing all 14 men aboard,
a Navy spokesman at Sixth Fleet Headquarters in Naples said.

The four-engine P-3 Orion submarine patrol
craft crashed into the side of a 2,700-foot mountain about an hour after
taking off from the Rota Navy Base in southern Spain, the spokesman said.

A Navy helicopter with medical personnel flew
from Rota to the crash scene and its crewmen radioed that there were no
survivors.

The spokesman said that the plane belonged
to Squadron VP-44 and was on a routine patrol. He said the aircraft was
stationed at Rota from its home base in Brunswick, Maine.
June 5, 1972:

The Navy this morning was still withholding
names of the 14 VP-44 crewmen killed Saturday in northern Morocco when
a P3 Orion submarine patrol airplane crashed into a 2,700 foot mountain
south of Algeciras, Spain.

Twelve of the 14 were based at Brunswick Naval
Air Station, according to the Navy. The squadron has been on deployment
at Rota, Spain, for about two months. Two members of the crew were based
at Rota.

Names of the crewmen were being withheld pending
notification of kin, a Navy spokesman said. The names were expected to
be released sometime today.

One of the victims was Louis B. Comeau, 31,
Lisbon. A Lewiston, Maine, native, Comeau's wife and family are residents
of Lisbon.

A memorial service for the lost crewmen is
expected to be held sometime this week, according to an information officer
at BNAS. He said details will be announced later.

According to the Navy, the crash happened about
one hour after the plane took off from Rota on a routine mission. Cause
of the crash is unknown but investigation is expected.

The plane was one of nine attached to VP-44.
About 250 men from the Brunswick-based squadron are at Rota conducting
submarine searching activities in the Mediterranean area.

The Navy said the crash was first spotted by
Spanish fishermen who watched the four-engine plane crash and explode in
flames. A British ship, the HMS Zulu, sent a helicopter to the scene and
reported at least five bodies sighted in the wreckage. A Navy helicopter
with medical personnel aboard also reached the scene and reported no survivors. Rota, where the squadron is on a five-month
deployment, is one of the largest facilities in the Mediterranean equipped
for antisubmarine warfare activities.

VP-44 came to Brunswick Naval Air Station in
1970 from Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland.
June 6, 1972:

A memorial service is scheduled tomorrow at
2 p.m. at the Brunswick Naval Air Station Chapel for 14 crewmen, 12 of
them members of VP-44, killed Saturday when their P3 Orion aircraft crashed
on a 2,700 foot mountain on the northeast coast of Morocco.

The crew included two area residents, Lieuenant
CommanderRobert L. Mendenhall of White Street in Topsham, pilot of the
plane and AE1 Louis B. Comeau of Lisbon.

A BNAS spokesman also said that three wives
of other crew members have residences in the area, but were away visiting
family members at the time of the crash.

The BNAS Chaplain will officiate at the 2 p.m.
memorial service. Interested citizens are invited to attend, the spokesman
said.

Co-pilot of the submarine patrol plane was
Lieuetnant (jg) Michael Whittig of Boise, Idaho. There was also a relief
pilot aboard, Lieuenant (jg) Edmund B. Titcomb of Austin, Texas.

Other crew members of the plane were identified
yesterday by the Navy as:

All were killed when the plane crashed into
the mountain while on what the Navy called a "routine mission" from Rota,
Spain. The plane and crew were part of 250 men and nine planes of VP-44
on deployment at Rota since April.

VP-44 has been stationed at BNAS since 1970
when the squadron was relocated from the Patuxent River Naval Air Station
in Maryland.

The crash victims included 12 regular VP-44
men and two stationed at Rota.
June 21, 1972:

NAPLES, Italy--Fourteen Navy men died June
3 when their four-engine P3 Orion patrol plane crashed into the side of
a mountain across the Straits of Gibraltar from Algeciras, Spain, about
an hour after taking off from the Rota Naval Base in southern Spain.